Prefabrication experiments - 226 - AI and information technology - 07 - From Sears to Amazon, evolution of mail-order prefab

Ask anyone about prefabricated houses and almost without exception everyone will acknowledge the Sears Roebuck catalogues of houses published from 1908 to 1940 as their reference for mail-ordered dwellings. The pre-cut housing kits advertised by Sears were modest and made it possible for anyone to order, receive and assemble normalized and well-defined components for selected designs. The do-it-yourself delivered kit is not an invention specific to Sears. Sears simply leveraged their catalogue business model to include the single-family dwelling. Albeit fairly marginal, this type of prefabrication has come to portray early prefabrication and arguably contributed to the development of the tract house as the acquiesced form of housing in North America. 

From 1908 - 1940 Sears produced approximately 70 000 houses, a relatively small number considering the number of dwellings produced during that time. With little knowledge of construction but with help from an industrious group of friends and some tools, also purchased from the Sears catalogue, one could build and furnish, with furnishings also purchased from Sears, a standardized living unit. This kit ideal certainly inspired original proposals from architects and companies experimenting with the prefabricated dwelling sector. A compendium of trade journals, architectural catalogues, pattern books would illustrate this active sector progressing even further with the post-war baby-boom. 

The mail-order catalogue was virtually replaced by brick and mortar companies and builders. The prefabricated and mail-ordered kit house was surpassed by on-site builders mass-producing tract developments based on the same type of normalization proposed by Sears. 

Today, mail-ordering architecture on-line is a becoming a disrupting force, particularly in the manufactured housing sector. On-line kits are readily accessible to build anything from green-houses to tiny houses and industrial buildings. From Amazon to Ebay, the internet culture is driving a renaissance of catalogue purchasing with the added value of WYSIWYG and of real-time five-star feedback. As on-line purchasing is now mainstream and reforms how people purchase, amazon culture has the potential to democratize the catalogue house, this time with the ability to offer world-wide delivery and access, simply by changing assembly instructions in hundreds of different languages with a simple click.

Sears catalogue design (left) - Amazon advertisement (right)